Amos 9:1-3

9:1 I saw the sovereign One ¹  standing by the altar ²  and he said, “Strike the tops of the support pillars, ³  so the thresholds shake!

Knock them down on the heads of all the people, ⁴ 

and I will kill the survivors ⁵  with the sword.

No one will be able to run away; ⁶ 

no one will be able to escape. ⁷ 

9:2 Even if they could dig down into the netherworld, ⁸ 

my hand would pull them up from there.

Even if they could climb up to heaven,

I would drag them down from there.

9:3 Even if they were to hide on the top of Mount Carmel,

I would hunt them down and take them from there.

Even if they tried to hide from me ⁹  at the bottom of the sea,

from there ¹⁰  I would command the Sea Serpent ¹¹  to bite them.

Job 11:20

11:20 But the eyes of the wicked fail, ¹² 

and escape ¹³  eludes them;

their one hope ¹⁴  is to breathe their last.” ¹⁵ 

Ecclesiastes 9:11

Wisdom Cannot Protect against Seemingly Chance Events

9:11 Again, ¹⁶  I observed this on the earth: ¹⁷ 

the race is not always ¹⁸  won by the swiftest,

the battle is not always won by the strongest;

prosperity ¹⁹  does not always belong to those who are the wisest,

wealth does not always belong to those who are the most discerning,

nor does success ²⁰  always come to those with the most knowledge –

for time and chance may overcome ²¹  them all.

Isaiah 30:16

30:16 You say, ‘No, we will flee on horses,’

so you will indeed flee.

You say, ‘We will ride on fast horses,’

so your pursuers will be fast.

Jeremiah 9:23

9:23 ²² The Lord says,

“Wise people should not boast that they are wise.

Powerful people should not boast that they are powerful. ²³ 

Rich people should not boast that they are rich. ²⁴ 

[9:1]  ¹ tn Or “the Lord.” The Hebrew term translated “sovereign One” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[9:1]  ² sn The altar is perhaps the altar at Bethel.

[9:1]  ³ tn Or “the capitals.” The Hebrew singular form is collective.

[9:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “cut them off on the head of all of them.” The translation assumes the objective suffix on the verb refers to the tops of the pillars and that the following prepositional phrase refers to the people standing beneath. Another option is to take this phrase as referring to the pillars, in which case one could translate, “Knock all the tops of the pillars off.”

[9:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “the remnant of them.” One could possibly translate, “every last one of them” (cf. NEB “to the last man”). This probably refers to those who survive the collapse of the temple, which may symbolize the northern kingdom.

[9:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “a fugitive belonging to them will not run away.”

[9:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “a survivor belonging to them will not escape.”

[9:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “into Sheol” (so ASV, NASB, NRSV), that is, the land of the dead localized in Hebrew thought in the earth’s core or the grave. Cf. KJV “hell”; NCV, NLT “the place of the dead”; NIV “the depths of the grave.”

[9:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “from before my eyes.”

[9:3]  ¹⁰ tn Or perhaps simply, “there,” if the מ (mem) prefixed to the adverb is dittographic (note the preceding word ends in mem).

[9:3]  ¹¹ sn If the article indicates a definite serpent, then the mythological Sea Serpent, symbolic of the world’s chaotic forces, is probably in view. See Job 26:13 and Isa 27:1 (where it is also called Leviathan). Elsewhere in the OT this serpent is depicted as opposing the Lord, but this text implies that even this powerful enemy of God is ultimately subject to his sovereign will.

[11:20]  ¹² tn The verb כָּלָה (kalah) means “to fail, cease, fade away.” The fading of the eyes, i.e., loss of sight, loss of life’s vitality, indicates imminent death.

[11:20]  ¹³ tn Heb a “place of escape” (with this noun pattern). There is no place to escape to because they all perish.

[11:20]  ¹⁴ tn The word is to be interpreted as a metonymy; it represents what is hoped for.

[11:20]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the breathing out of the soul”; cf. KJV, ASV “the giving up of the ghost.” The line is simply saying that the brightest hope that the wicked have is death.

[9:11]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “I returned and.” In the Hebrew idiom, “to return and do” means “to do again.”

[9:11]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “under the sun.”

[9:11]  ¹⁸ tn The term “always” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation (five times in this verse) for clarity.

[9:11]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “bread.”

[9:11]  ²⁰ tn Heb “favor.”

[9:11]  ²¹ tn Heb “happen to.”

[9:23]  ²² sn It is not always clear why verses were placed in their present position in the editorial process of collecting Jeremiah’s sermons and the words the Lord spoke to him (see Jer 36:4, 32 for reference to two of these collections). Here it is probable that vv. 23-26 were added as a further answer to the question raised in v. 12.

[9:23]  ²³ tn Or “Strong people should not brag that they are strong.”

[9:23]  ²⁴ tn Heb “…in their wisdom…in their power…in their riches.”